Acer Aspire M5-583P-6428 Review and Ratings

Editors’ Rating:

Our Verdict:
Gamers will definitely want to look elsewhere, but those who want good performance in a convenient, sturdy shell will do well with the affordable Acer Aspire M5-583P-6428 and its bright 15.6-inch touch screen. Read More…

What We Liked…

Slim, sturdy design

Perky performance

Runs cool

Long battery life

What We Didn’t…

Finicky touch screen

Cheap-feeling touch pad

Sound grates at higher volumes

Acer Aspire M5-583P-6428 Review

Introduction & Design

Best Buy's Web site says that the Acer Aspire M5-583P-6428 comes with an Intel "Ultrabook Starter Pack" bonus download. We wouldn't call the M5 an ultrabook—like most 15.6-inch laptops, it's a little thicker (0.9 inch) and heavier (5.3 pounds) than smaller-screened machines that meet Intel's ultrabook criteria, and it lacks a solid-state drive or SSD drive cache, relying on a conventional 500GB hard drive. But for $699 on Acer's site or $649 on Best Buy's, it's an affordable way to get everything from a fourth-generation Core i5 processor and backlit keyboard to a 10-point touch screen.

The Aspire M5-583P-6428 will not, however, impress anyone looking for high-octane gaming performance. Nor will it impress anyone looking for touch-screen capabilities. Not only has touch, once a novelty, become almost as ubiquitous as the mouse and keyboard, but the Acer's touch screen felt unfriendly at times. Another knock against the M5 is the need for a mouse during extended use, since the touch pad could have been much better.

The Aspire has a sturdy if somewhat bland design. The silver brushed aluminum chassis won't inspire awe the same way the aesthetic pleasure of a sleek MacBook Pro or a Sony VAIO notebook might, but it does have a nice matte finish that will keep fingerprints off. Its most notable physical feature is the large backlit keyboard that fills most of the deck. The keys feel smooth and comfortable, plus they're flat enough to allow for quiet typing and there's absolutely no keyboard flex—the M5 was as stiff as a board during our many e-mail and document writing sessions.

Our only issue with the keyboard is the placement of the Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys as part of the numeric keypad on the right. We often use these keys for Web and document browsing, and it took some practice to learn their location in the top right corner rather than closer to the arrow keys (which team with the Fn key to control the Aspire's audio volume and screen brightness settings). It's not that big a problem, still less one unique to the M5-583P-6428, but it bears mentioning for anyone used to using those keys for Web browsing.

A large touch pad sits below the keyboard, flanked by sizable wrist rests. The pad sits a little farther to the left than we'd like, but it's far from out of reach entirely and it never got in the way of successful typing.

The touch pad does, however, deserve a ding for its cheap feel and hair-trigger response. Without fail, when gliding through Web pages using two-finger scrolling, it highlighted all text within reach. This got tiresome, even after fiddling with settings in the Control Panel.

Clicking with a single finger felt fine, if a tad hollow. More serious users may want to invest in a mouse for navigating. We would have preferred mouse buttons to the chintzy-feeling one-piece touch pad approach that Acer goes for.